Pen Sovann

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Pen Sovann (born April 15, 1936 in Chan Teap, Takeo Province , † October 29, 2016 in Doun Kaev, Takeo Province), khm. សុវណ្ណ សុវណ្ណ, also Pen Sovan , was a Cambodian politician. He was after the fall of the regime of the Khmer Rouge from January 5th, 1979 Secretary General of the People's Revolutionary Party of the Khmer (Engl. Khmer People's Revolutionary Party , KPRP), from January 7, 1979 Defense and from 27 June 1981 and Prime Minister of Hanoi supported People's Republic of Kampuchea .

He was arrested and removed from office by the Vietnamese on December 5, 1981, because he had criticized Lê Đức Thọ for the stationing of the Vietnamese troops in Cambodia. He remained detained in Vietnam until January 1992. After his return, Sovann served various opposition parties and was a member of parliament from 2014 until his death .

Early life

Pen Sovann was born into a peasant family of 9 people of Vietnamese descent in Chan Teap, Takeo Province . In 1949, at the age of 13, he joined the Khmer Issarak ("Independent Khmer") and fought against the French. Two years later, Sovann joined the Indochinese Communist Party , where he first met Ta Mok , who would later become the last leader of the Khmer Rouge, whom he served as secretary and bodyguard, before they parted ways after independence in 1954. After the Geneva Conference of 1954 , which ended the Indochina War, the Việt Minh had to leave Cambodia. Depending on the source, 1,000 to 2,500 Khmer, including Pen Sovann, left Cambodia with them to continue their education in North Vietnam. On July 27, 1958, Sovann was a co-founder of the KPRP. He married a Vietnamese woman and rose to major in the North Vietnamese army.

Fight against the Khmer Republic

In 1970, after Lon Nol couped against King Norodom Sihanouk and proclaimed the Khmer Republic , Sovann returned to Cambodia and supported the Khmer Rouge during the civil war between 1970 and 1973 against the Khmer Republic. From 1971 he worked with Chan Sy under Khieu Thirith for the radio of the United National Front of Kampuchea (French Front uni national du Kampuchéa , FUNK). In 1972 he was asked by his superiors to draw up a list of the Cambodian communists who had fled to Hanoi in 1954. In view of the increasingly aggressive policy of the Khmer Rouge against everything Vietnamese, he fled to Hanoi before they came to power in 1974.

Position in the People's Republic of Kampuchea

After the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, Sovann was a founding member of the United National Front for the Rescue of Kampuchea , or Salvation Front for short (French Front uni national pour le salut du Kampuchéa , FUNSK; English Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation ) on November 25, 1978 who campaigned for the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge with the help of an invasion of Vietnam. The invasion took place in December 1978, the capture of Phnom Penh on January 7, 1979. Two days earlier, Sovann had been elected General Secretary of the KPRP. The People's Republic of Kampuchea was founded on January 10, 1978, and the next day a government installed by Vietnam under Heng Samrin with Sovann as deputy prime minister and defense minister (and the young Hun Sen as foreign minister). When Samrin limited himself to the office of President of the Council of State, the head of state, on June 27, 1981, Sovann became Prime Minister.

Arrested by Vietnam

Sovann was arrested on December 5, 1981 after criticizing Lê Đức Thû, the Vietnamese chief adviser to the Salvation Front and the People's Republic of Kampuchea , for the stationing of Vietnamese troops in Cambodia, and replaced by Chan Sy. He was released on January 25, 1992 after seven years in prison and three years of house arrest in Vietnam. Sovann explained the reason for his imprisonment as follows: "When I wanted to create our own army of five regiments, the Vietnamese did not agree, and Lê Đức Thọ went to the USSR to complain."

Return to Cambodia and death

After his return to Cambodia in 1992, Sovann founded the Cambodian National Sustaining Party , which ran in the 1998 elections , but was the fifth best party to not win a seat in parliament . He later joined the founded in 2007, Human Rights Party ( Human Rights Party at HRP) and was its vice president. In 2012 he became a member of the merger of Human Rights Party and Sam Rainsy Party newly founded National Salvation Party of Cambodia ( Cambodia National Rescue Party , CNRP) and ran in 2013 in the constituency of Kampong Speu in the parliamentary elections . He was elected, sworn in on August 5, 2013, and was a member of parliament until his death. However, after a stroke and a heart attack in January 2015, he was barely able to exercise his office and afterwards only stayed in his home.

Sovann died at the age of 80 in Doun Kaev, Takeo Province. He was cremated in Phnom Penh on November 6, 2016. On November 10, the doctor Suon Rida replaced Pen Sovann in Parliament.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert A. Scalapino , Jusuf Wanandi (Ed.): Economic, Political, and Security Issues in Southeast Asia in the 1980s (= Research Papers and Policy Studies. Vol. 7). Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California , Berkeley (CA) 1982, ISBN 978-0-912966-52-6 , p. 225 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  2. ↑ Christine Chaumeau: Pen Sovann out to settle old scores. In: The Phnom Penh Post . May 16, 1997.
  3. ↑ Alex Willemyns: Ex-Prime Minister Pen Sovann dies at 80. In: The Phnom Penh Post. October 30, 2016.
  4. ^ Luke Young: Cambodian Political History. The Case of Pen Sovann. In: Monthly Review. Vol. 65, No. 6, November 1, 2013.
  5. ^ A b Margaret Slocomb: The People's Republic of Kampuchea, 1979-1989: The Revolution after Pol Pot. Silkworm, Chiang Mai 2004, ISBN 978-974-9575-34-5 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  6. ^ Judy Ledgerwood: The KPRP. Northern Illinois University , Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Interactive Learning Resources for Southeast Asian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SEAsite).
  7. ↑ Cambodia's first post-Khmer Rouge prime minister dies at 80 ( memento from October 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: Washington Post . October 30, 2016.
  8. ↑ Mam Moniroth: សព អតីត នាយករដ្ឋមន្ត្រី លោក ប៉ែន សុវណ្ណ អាច នឹង ត្រូវ ដង្ហែ ពី ខេត្តតាកែវ ទៅ បូជា នៅ ភ្នំពេញ. In: Radio Free Asia . October 30, 2016 (Translation: "Former Prime Minister will be cremated in Phnom Penh. Pen Sovann died of natural causes on Saturday, October 29, at 7:17 pm at the age of 80 in his home in Snor Village, Rorka Knon Commune, Province Takeo ").
  9. ↑ Mech Dara: Ex-PM Sovann cremated in capital. In: The Phnom Penh Post . November 7, 2006.
  10. ↑ Ben Sokhean: Opposition Appoints Official to Replace Pen Sovann. In: The Cambodia Daily . November 10, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Sovann, Pen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sovan, Pen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cambodian politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Chan Teap, Takeo Province
DATE OF DEATH October 29, 2016
Place of death Doun Kaev, Takeo Province